REDLANDS – The city will negotiate a second contract with a consultant trying to find the right spot for a new Safety Hall.

The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to direct city staff to negotiate a new contract with Los Angeles-based Kosmont Companies for the second phase of an effort to find a new home for the city’s police. The contract will require Kosmont to find a new spot for a new Safety Hall and develop a strategy to pay for its construction.

“We’re looking at five or six sites to review,” said Oscar Orci, director of the city’s Community Development Department.

The city’s previous contract with Kosmont required the company to determine if the site at 212 Brookside Ave. – home of the old Safety Hall – could be used again. A Kosmont report showed the site was not compatible with the council’s plans.

The old contract – of up to $50,000 – was paid for out of the Public Facilities Fund.

Orci said the city will need to borrow unreserved money because the Public Facilities Fund is depleted.

Unreserved money is what’s left over at the end of a fiscal year when all budget requirements have been met. The money is routinely used for one-time expenses, although the council voted in May to use $3.1 million in such money to help balance its budget – an ongoing cost.

Because the Safety Hall contract is a one-time expense, the use of the unreserved fund balance money makes sense, said city spokesman Carl Baker.

“That would be an appropriate use of that money if the City Council approves the (new) contract,” he said.

And the city would repay any unreserved money it uses once the Public Facilities Fund is built up again, Orci said.

The old Safety Hall, at 212 Brookside Ave., was built in 1961 and was police headquarters until the department had to abandon it in September 2008 because of a leaking roof and structural problems.

Police now occupy Fire Station 264 as a temporary headquarters. The firefighters that used to occupy the station now use a portable building as a temporary station.